It’s hard to imagine anything more enticing than a flaky pastry good old-fashioned apple flag pie on the 4th of July. It’s a treat made the day before that will be perfect for serving the following day.

Delicious, homemade apple pie brings to mind warmth, comfort, happiness, family and wonderful memories— apple pie is home. Homemade apple pie is love. I’ve been baking apple pies one after the other lately, both old-fashioned and with crumb topping topped a la mode with a fantastic, easy homemade cinnamon ice cream and drizzled with homemade caramel sauce. The pies were simply delicious, with crusts that were perfectly flaky. Apple pie is simply my family’s favorite, something they can never get enough of.Read More →

I can’t think of anything more beautiful than nature’s change of colors from one season to the next. Leaves are now turning from summer’s lush greens to fall’s fiery oranges, yellows and reds. And what usually comes to mind at this time of the year is pie—all kinds of pie. So here’s a delicious, fragrant and “easy as pie” pumpkin pie that blends perfectly with the colors of fall, and will fit right in on any Thanksgiving table.Read More →

Continuing with the Valentine heart theme, I topped these pecan tarts with heart-shaped pastry cutouts. Any shape cutout will do, depending on the occasion, so maybe small snowflakes would be great for winter and little flowers for spring. Individual, bite-size treats are so hard to resist since you can count exactly the number of portions you take, and can decide to stop at one, two or three tarts. For myself, I think I had more than that in one sitting—so much for portion control.Read More →